Real Money-Saving Hacks From Big, Frugal Families

If you’ve seen the movie Cheaper By The Dozen, you know that surviving with a big family is definitely a challenge. Or maybe you’re part of a huge family and already know the struggle first-hand! Having so many kids means more mouths to feed, backs to clothe, and futures to fund. While it’s definitely a difficult and challenging time for many large families, it’s not impossible. And being surrounded by multiple family members you love definitely makes the struggle worth it. Whether you’re thinking of having a big family of your own, already do, or are just plain curious how people manage, here are tips and stories from huge families who are nailing frugal living.

Couponing Is Crucial

Source: Business Insider

Source: Business Insider

When you have multiple children to feed and care for, couponing can become your best friend. That is true for one woman named Kelly. She stays up until the late hours of the night checking for different coupons. She fears she might miss out, and one coupon can really make the difference between how much you can and can’t buy.

Nothing Can Get in the Way of a Good Deal

Source: Business Insider

Source: Business Insider

This mother, Angelique, is just a few days away from having to go on bed rest! Even her own health isn’t enough to stop her from trying to get a good deal. When you can get something as low as $.30 cents, however, it’s worth it. She has a lot of mouths to feed and to her, even junk food can help!

She Doesn’t Do It Alone

Source: Business Insider

Source: Business Insider

Luckily, Angelique is able to coupon with her husband by her side. Without his help, she may not be able to do it alone. That’s one important key factor when creating a successful, big frugal family scenario. You always have to have your partner by your side willing to help you through all the tough spots.

Dirty Hands Are Disastrous

Source: Business Insider

Source: Business Insider

This mom of multiples, April, says her hand soap is one of her most prized possessions. Not only does she love it because she was able to get a lot of it for free, but she also needs it in a house full of kids. Multiple family members around run the risk of spreading a lot of germs, and sick kids can be disastrous. That’s why it’s so important to her to make sure she’s got kids with clean hands!

Always Be Prepared

Source: Business Insider

Source: Business Insider

You really can’t ever be too prepared when you have a house full of children. That’s why couponing is so helpful. You can have huge stockpiles like this so that you have plenty of the items that you need to maintain a stocked household. Without preparation like this, you might not be able to make it with so many kids! What’s the most important item to have in your stockpile?

You Can Really Never Have Too Much TP

Source: Business Insider

Source: Business Insider

All mothers of multiples agree that toilet paper is a crucial item to have stocked full in your pantry. Obviously, you have to have food to feed everyone, but what happens after everyone’s done eating? That’s right, time to go to the bathroom. Any parent knows running out of toilet paper means disaster, and parents of multiple children know this all the more to be true!

Supplies for Laundry

Source: Business Insider

Source: Business Insider

Doing your own laundry is hard enough as it is. I mean, we dirty an entire outfit every day! So what does that mean when you have twelve kids? Twelve dirty outfits a day! This mom isn’t intimidated, however. As you can see, her dryer sheet stockpile is massive! She states that she never worries about things smelling bad with all the laundry supplies she buys with her coupons!

Start the Kids Early

Source: Business Insider

Source: Business Insider

Taking care of kids is one thing. But actually raising them to be good people is an entirely different beast! This woman is already teaching her young daughter to coupon. When you get the whole family involved in on couponing, that means more deals and more cheap supplies! Aside from couponing, what other important aspects are there in having massive families?

Farming Helps

If you’re a mom of multiples, you know that making things yourself can be a lot cheaper than buying store bought items. This is even true when it comes to your own animals! One mom states that with her savings, she is able to buy a cow a year. This means more inexpensive meat to feed multiple hungry mouths. Farming is definitely a challenge, but it’s nothing compared to what’s coming next on the list.

This Family Does It in a Tiny House

Source: Big Family Tiny Life

Source: Big Family Tiny Life

When you think big family, you probably think of a big house, right? That’s definitely not the case for this family. Though they have six members, they still have decided to live all together in a tiny house! But how do they do it, and why did they decide to do so in the first place?

They Are Able To Live Bigger

Source: Pixabay

Source: Pixabay

Although this family resides in a tiny house, they claim that this allows them to live a bigger life! They plan to be self-sufficient, reducing their consumption and energy use. They save money and cut many costs that normal families might not think about. They state that this gives them more freedom to focus on the important things. But just how exactly do they do it?

Family Is the Most Important

Source: Big Family Tiny Life

Source: Big Family Tiny Life

For this family, love and closeness are the most important to them. They have had to give up many belongings in order to live in the house. You can’t bring every tool, toy, or item of clothing when you have such limited space. This just reminds them that items are material and don’t matter nearly as much as bonding as a close family does.

It’s a Choice

Source: Big Family Tiny Life

Source: Big Family Tiny Life

For some families with many children, times get tough, money gets low, and they’re forced to live in small houses. This family isn’t forced into it, however, and they chose this as the best option for their family. They needed a way to cut back costs, consume less, and save money. A tiny house is definitely the way to do that!

Freedom To Travel

Source: Big Family Tiny Life

Source: Big Family Tiny Life

As we mentioned earlier, this family also gets to live bigger as well because of their tiny house. They are capable of taking their entire family and moving them from one spot to the next easily. Vacationing and traveling is hard because it’s expensive, especially with multiple children. But this family found the best way to get to see all the things they might not have gotten the opportunity to have they stayed stationary in one house. A tiny house seems tough, but what this next mom does seems even more impossible!

Multi-Person Bikes

When you think about being environmentally friendly, cutting down on your transportation is something that can definitely help reduce your family’s carbon footprints. But this woman takes it to the next level by biking with her six kids on one bike! Emily actually was used to driving a massive 9 person SUV, but in order to cut costs, she decided that she wanted to trade the SUV for a family bike!

A Rewarding Challenge

Source: Gear Junkie

Source: Gear Junkie

It’s definitely not always easy for Emily. But for her, it’s definitely worth it. She gets a great deal of exercise cycling hundreds of pounds around town! She also reduces how much she might be harming the environment around her, and she definitely saves a ton of money! This might seem crazy, but the next cost-cutting trend is even wilder!

Bike Generators

Source: Pixabay

Source: Pixabay

Do you love riding bikes and also enjoy saving money while reducing your energy usage? Bicycle generators are definitely the way to go! This new trend involves hooking up a power source to a stationary bicycle, and then using the energy from someone cycling to power electronics! Click ahead to read about the benefits!

They Help People Stay in Shape

Biking is one of the best ways for all body types of all ages to stay in shape. It’s low impact and has amazing results on your body. Many multi-children families are opting for the use of bicycle generators as great ways to produce energy and keep the whole family in shape and healthy! But how exactly does it work?

They Produce So Much Energy

Source: Pixabay

Source: Pixabay

If you live alone in a large house, you’re not going to be able to power the whole thing by yourself. But if you have a large family who all constantly have cell phones, laptops, and video game consoles charging, having everyone take a turn on a bike for an hour is enough to help charge these items alone and reduce that part of your electric bill!

We Can All Learn Something

All of the amazing parents on the list are really doing a lot to help cut back on their consumption and what damage they might be putting into the environment. For people who are responsible for raising so many children, important lessons like these are crucial. What they do is a lesson for everyone, even single people. If we all worked hard to cut down on our consumption such as these families do, the world would be a better place.